Tokyo Turtle
Today I was walking through the Akinohi Park near the Oedo Subway Line terminus station, Hikarigaoka, in Tokyo’s Nerima Ward around 9:30 a.m. when I happened to see this turtle sunning itself on a rock in a pond there. I was immediately attracted because turtles are my favorite animal. It was not the common green pond turtle that I knew and kept as a boy in Canada. It was a darker color, almost black. Maybe it was The Japanese pond turtle (Mauremys japonica), called the nihon ishigame, or “stone turtle” in Japanese. Or it could have been a Japanese long neck turtle. But its neck didn't seem nearly long enough to qualify. I don’t know. Anyway, it looked so nice and peaceful. A kindergarten class was also in the park studying plants. Far enough away not to disturb the turtle. The pond and stream in the park are entirely artificial and man-made. That means that the turtle probably got there because it was someone’s pet and they released it into the stream. Since the habitat is entirely man made the creature is kind of trapped there. It can’t go very far. The water in the pond and stream are recycled by a pump, which accounts for the flow. There’s nothing natural about it. Oh, well.